Bill Nye Vs. Ken Ham: Who Won the Debate?

Bill Nye, beloved 90’s “Science Guy”, defended the theory of Evolution against Ken Ham and the theory of Creationism last night for two and a half hours. Neither one left persuaded to the other side.

The debate took place at Ham’s Creation Museum where there are displays of some thought-provoking evidence to refute the theory of Evolution in favor of the Bible’s Creation story.

Ham asserts that all of the answers are in the Bible, and that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old. Nye insists that there are still infinite discoveries to be made in the pursuit of understanding Evolution and that the Earth was created from a “big bang”.

Nye went on to say, “If we accept Mr. Ham’s point of view … that the Bible serves as a science text and he and his followers will interpret that for you, I want you to consider what that means,” Nye said. “It means that Mr. Ham’s word is to be more respected than what you can observe in nature, what you can find in your backyard in Kentucky.”

Ken Ham answered a question about where atoms come from with this statement, “Bill, I want to tell you, there is a book that tells where atoms come from, and its starts out, ‘In the beginning …,'”

The debate was highly publicized and anticipated, but apparently, Bill Nye faced some criticism from his colleagues for appearing at the debate, according to Yahoo. For example, Jerry Coyne, a professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, wrote this on his blog, “Nye’s appearance will be giving money to organizations who try to subvert the mission Nye has had all his life: science education, particularly of kids.”

Regardless of the agree-to-disagree outcome, the debate will give a huge boost to the museum. Ham’s Facebook page had hundreds of thousands of views before the debate, which he explains,

“I think it shows you that the majority of people out there, they’re interested in this topic, they want to know about this, they don’t want debate shut down,” he said.